Tape reel

ABSTRACT

The disclosure embodies a reel which is rotatable about a vertical axis to unwind a roll of tape being pulled either from the inner end of the roll or from the outer end of the roll. The reel is mounted to rotate about a vertical shaft which in one mode of operation of the reel projects upwardly into a closed chamber of the reel hub. A bearing in the form of a ball rests in a socket in the top of the shaft and a hubcap has a socket to receive the ball such that the entire weight of the reel rests on the ball and rotates substantially freely on the shaft. In this mode, the reel is employed to unwind nonrewound tape or a roll of tape of which the lead end is the inner end. The reel is usable in another mode merely by inverting it whereupon the ball is displaced and entrapped in the chamber, the tape now functioning to take the thrust of the reel against a stationary mounting base. In this mode, tape is unwound from a roll of rewound tape of which the outer end is the lead end. The thrust of the hubcap against the mounting provides a drag on the reel which is desirable to prevent acceleration of the wheel by its inertia.

United States Patent I Neal Hepner [72] Inventor Birmingham, Mich. [21] Appl. No. 774,887 [22] Filed Nov. 12, 1968 [45] Patented Mar. 9, 1971 [73] Assignee Burroughs Corporation Detroit, Mich.

[54] TAPE REEL 2 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl [51] lnLCl [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,147,680 7/1915 Crawford 1,378,672 5/1921 Foothorap 2,554,812 5/1951 Buckman B65h 17/02 [5 0] Field of Search Primary Examiner-Nathan L. Mintz Attorneys- Kenneth L. Miller, Wallace P. Lamb, Edwin W.

Uren and Paul Fish ABSTRACT: The disclosure embodies a reel which is rotatable about a vertical axis to unwind a roll of tape being pulled either from the inner end of the roll or from the outer end of the roll. The reel is mounted to rotate about a vertical shaft which in one mode of operation of the reel projects upwardly into a closed chamber of the reel hub. A hearing in the form of a ball rests in a socket in the top of the shaft and a hubcap has a socket to receive the ball such that the entire weight of the reel rests on the ball and rotates substantially freely on the shaft. in this mode, the reel is employed to unwind non-.

rewound tape or a roll of tape of which the lead end is the inner end. The reel is usable in another mode merely by in-' verting it whereupon the ball is displaced and entrapped in the chamber, the tape now functioning to take the thrust of the reel against a stationary mounting base. In this mode, tape is unwound from a roll of rewound tape of which the outer end is the lead end. The thrust of the hubcap against the mounting provides a drag on the reel which is desirable to prevent acceleration of the wheel by its inertia.

PATENTED MAR 91971 SHEET 1 [IF 3 ATTORNEY.

PATENTED MAR 9 197i SHEET 2 OF 3 j laa.

TAPE near.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention resides in the structural components of a tape reel which makes it possible to journal a reel hub on a single bearing ball with the components held in place solely by the weightof the reel. The hub of the reel includes elements which make it possible to orient the reel with respect to its shaft to position the bearing ball in its effective reel supporting position for one mode of operation and to dislodge the ball by in verting the reel for use in another mode of operation.

PRIOR ART Theinvention relates generally to the feeding of tape such as coded punched tape which is pulled from a reel and fed to a data reader. If a rewound roll of tape is used, the tape will be pulled from the reel starting with the'outer end of the tape;

whereas if a nonrewound reel of tape is used,"it will be pulled from the reel starting with the inner end of the tape. As is well known, the feeding of rewound tape requires that a drag must be applied to the reel since otherwise the inertia of the reel would cause an undesirable rapid unwinding of the tape. In the case of unwinding a nonrewound tape, it is well known that the reel should rotate quite freely if entanglement and breakage of the tape is to be avoided. Heretofore, the above conditions have be'fl met by providing one type of reel for rewound tape and a different type of reel for nonrewound tape which is, of course, inconvenient and costly.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a tape reel which may be used for either unwinding rewound tape or for unwinding nonrewound tape.

IN THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a plan view of a tape handling mechanism including a tape unwinding reel embodying features of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view, taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. I;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary bottom view, taken in the direction of the arrows 3-3 of FIG. 2; 7

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view, taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the mechanism of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 2 but with the reel inverted;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6, but with a spool of tape thereon;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the mechanism of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view, and

FIG. 10 is another enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 to 5, the mechanism comprises in general a base 10, a vertical spindle or shaft 12, a tape supply reel 14 and a tape guide member 16. The reel 14 is supported on the base 10 by the shaft 12, and the guide member 16 is also supported on the base, laterally positioned with respect to the reel 14.

The base 10 has a downwardly recessed portion 18 provided with a bore 19 to receive a lower reduced end portion 20 of the shaft 12. Under the shoulder formed by the reduced diameter of shaft portion 20 there is a washer 22 preferably of a wear resistant plastic material. The tape reel 14 is made of a suitable plastic material having an inner hub 24, an outer hub 26, and a tape supporting disc 28. Within and integral with the inner hub 24 there is a vertical tubular member 30 to receive the shaft 12, the member 30 being coaxial with the hub. The

, shaft 12 has an upper end portion projecting into a chamber 32 which is provided within the reel hub and which is closed at the top by a hub cap 34. Between the upper end of the shaft 12 and the cap 34 there is provided a ball 36. The chamber 32 has a generally conical inner wall coaxial with the hub 24, forming an upwardly facing conical seat 37. When the reel 14 is being placed onto the shaft 12, the ball 36 will be resting on the seat 37 and will be transferred to the upper end of the shaft 12 as the reel is lowered, the ball being engaged and retained by the socket 38 in the hub cap. As shown in FIG. 2, the underside of the cap 34 projects part way into the closed chamber 32 and is provided centrally thereof with a downwardly facing spheroidal socket 38 wherein the ball 36 is received. Thus, the ball 36 and the weight of the reel 14 rest on the upper end of the shaft 12, the shaft having an upper portion 40 of reduced diameter with an upwardly facing spheroidal socket 41 to receive the ball 36.

The reel described above is provided for holding nonrewound tape 42, that is, tape which has been unwound from a reel such that the leading end of the tape is inwardly of the roll. Also, this roll of nonrewound tape is without a spool and is placed onto the hub 26 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 5 with the inner end of the tape 42 threaded through the guideway 16. It will be understood that this end of the tape can be connected to a tape feed means to feed the tape, for example, past a tape reader (not shown). As the tape is pulled from inwardly of the tape roll, the tape winds around the hub 26 and around a rubber facing 43 at the top of the hub and causes the reel 14 to rotate. The reel 14 offers very little resistance to rotation by the tape by reason of the single bearing ball. In this connection it will be noted that the upper socket 38 of the ball 36 has a larger surface area than the socket 41 in the upper end of the shaft 12. The consequence of this is that the ball 36 rotates with reel 14 on the upper end of the shaft 12, the shaft being stationary and affording little drag.

Referring now to FIGS. 7 and 8, there is shown the same reel 14 and shaft 12 as described above relative to FIGS. l-S, the difference being that the reel 14 has been inverted in FIGS. 6 to 8 such that the cap 34 now rests on the washer 22 on the base portion 10. When the reel I4 is to be inverted, it is removed from the upper end of the shaft 12 merely by lifting the reel 14 during which the seat 37 picks up the ball 36, as shown in FIG. 9. The reel 14 is then inverted and with bore 46 oriented with the upper end 40 of the shaft 12, the reel is lowered to the position shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The cap 34 now rests on the washer 22 which provides a predetermined desired drag opposing inertia of the reel so as to prevent unwinding of the tape from the outer end of the roll upon deceleration of the reel. The roll of rewound tape, as at 45, is on a spool 47, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the spool 47 having a hub which is received onto the inner hub 24 of the reel 14.

Laterally of the reel 14 the base 10 is provided with an upstanding tubular boss 48 within which a pin 50 is rotatable, the pin 50 being integral with the tape guide member 16. Beneath the base 10 an arm 52 is secured to the pin 50 and is positioned to engage the baselt) to limit counterclockwise rotation of the guide member 16. A coil spring 54 connected to an arm 56 which is integral with arm 52 yieldingly urges arm 52 in a counterclockwise direction as shown in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 9, the inner conical wall of the chamber 32 is provided with equally angularly displaced baffles 60 and 62 to quickly decelerate the ball 36. The baffles 60 are ridges, whereas the baffles 62 are grooves. Thus, the ball 36 will settle in one of the grooves 62. Accordingly, when the reel 14 is removed from the base 10, the ball 36 will roll down and settle on the seat 37, as shown in FIG. 9. The ball 36 is now in position to be picked up'by the socket 41 of shaft 12 when the reel 14 is again used to unwind nonrewound tape, as in FIG. 2.

Iclaim:

1. A tape reel structure comprising a disc to support a roll of tape and an artis of rotation, a hub joined at one end thereof to said disc coaxially thereof, a cap closing the outer end of said hub, a conical partition joined to and within said hubin spaced relation to said cap axially of said huib, said conical partition converging away from said cap to an apex coincident with the axis of said hub and forming a seat facing toward said cap, said conical partition cooperating with said cap and said hub to' define a closed chamber, a stationary upright spindle to receive said hub and projecting upwardly into said chamber and surrounded by said seat, a pair of opposed sockets respectively on said cap and the upper end of said spindle and aligned with said seat, a ball hearing held solely by and between said sockets, said ball bearing descending from said cap upon lifting the reel from said spindle and settling on said seat.

2. A tape reel structure having one position and having another and inverted position comprising a disc having an axis of rotation, a first hub joined at one end thereof to said disc in coaxial relationship therewith and projecting from one side of said disc for receiving a roll of tape when the reel is in said one position, a second hub joined to said disc in coaxial relationship with said first hub and projecting from the other side of said disc for receiving a roll of tape when said disc is in said invetted position, a cap closing the outer end of said first hub and having an external bearing for mounting the reel in its inverted position, a conical partition joined to and within said first hub and converging away from said cap to an apex coincident with the axes of said hubs, said conical partition cooperating with said cap and said first hub to define a closed chamber, a stationary upright spindle to receive said second hub and in said first position of the reel project into said chamber, a centrally located aperture in said cap to receive said spindle in the inverted position of the reel, opposed sockets respectively on said cap and on the upper end of said spindle, a ball bearing solely held by and between said sockets in said one position, and baffle members on said conical partition within said chamber to direct said ball bearing downwardly toward the apex of said conical partition when reversing the reel from the inverted position to said one position. 

1. A tape reel structure comprising a disc to support a roll of tape and an axis of rotation, a hub joined at one end thereof to said disc coaxially thereof, a cap closing the outer end of said hub, a conical partition joined to and within said hub in spaced relation to said cap axially of said hub, said conical partition converging away from said cap to an apex coincident with the axis of said hub and forming a seat facing toward said cap, said conical partition cooperating with said cap and said hub to define a closed chamber, a stationary upright spindle to receive said hub and projecting upwardly into said chamber and surrounded by said seat, a pair of opposed sockets respectively on said cap and the upper end of said spindle and aligned with said seat, a ball bearing held solely by and between said sockets, said ball bearing descending from said cap upon lifting the reel from said spindle and settling on said seat.
 2. A tape reel structure having one position and having another and inverted position comprising a disc having an axis of rotation, a first hub joined at one end thereof to said disc in coaxial relationship therewith and projecting from one side of said disc for receiving a roll of tape when the reel is in said one position, a second hub joined to said disc in coaxial relationship with said first hub and projecting from the other side of said disc for receiving a roll of tape when said disc is in said inverted position, a cap closing the outer end of said first hub and having an external bearing for mounting the reel in its inverted position, a conical partition joined to and within said first hub and converging away from said cap to an apex coincident with the axes of said hubs, said conical partition cooperating with said cap and said first hub to define a closed chamber, a stationary upright spindle to receive said second hub and in said first position of the reel project into said chamber, a centrally located aperture in said cap to receive said spindle in the inverted position of the reel, opposed sockets respectively on said cap and on the upper end of said spindle, a ball bearing solely held by and between said sockets in said one position, and baffle members on said conical partition within said chamber to direct said ball bearing downwardly toward the apex of said conical partition when reversing the reel from the inverted position to said one position. 